In hospital environments, patients often require continual monitoring with relatively short repetition intervals, even when the patient is being transported from one location in the hospital to another. Portable patient monitors have been developed which are battery operated and are able to travel with the patient to provide uninterrupted patient monitoring. Portable patient monitors may include electrodes attached to a patient to receive electrical signals representing physiological parameters of the patient. These parameters may be displayed on the portable patient device, but may also be supplied to a central location in the hospital where they may be displayed on a patient monitoring system, or stored in a patient medical record or a patient data repository.
In such a hospital environment, docking stations for portable devices are provided at fixed locations throughout the hospital, such as patient rooms, therapy rooms, operating rooms, and so forth. Such docking stations permit the batteries in the portable patient monitor to be recharged and also permit the portable patient monitor to be connected to the central location through a wired link from the docking station to the central location. It is also possible for the portable patient monitor to remain in communication with the docking station when undocked in proximity of the docking station. For example, the portable patient monitor may be undocked within a therapy room to allow the patient to exercise without the restraint of being attached to the docking station. When the patient is being moved from one location to another, the portable patient monitor may remain in communication with the central location wirelessly. To do this, wireless access points with associated antennae are located throughout the hospital, e.g. in hallways, elevators, etc.; wherever a patient may be transported from one room to another.
Thus, a portable patient monitor may include multiple channels for maintaining communication with the central location of the hospital. It is desirable that transitions between communications channels be handled properly so that continual monitoring may be maintained.